Technical Field
The present disclosure is directed to a method and apparatus for reducing the error from resistor mismatch in a sensor and more particularly, to a switching resistor array capable of producing multiple equivalent resistive loads as seen by the detection elements of a sensor.
Description of the Related Art
In applications where a change in external conditions affects the operation of components in the application, sensors may be implemented which sense the external conditions of an application device. This may be of interest to applications embedded on an integrated circuit, for example. In these applications changes to the external conditions may affect the functioning of integrated circuit components. For example a higher temperature may lead to a degradation in the performance of the integrated circuit (IC), may accelerate the degradation of the IC and/or may reduce the lifetime of the IC. The temperature may be reduced or controlled by turning off one or more of the less important blocks of an IC, reducing operating current and/or performance mode, controlling the speed of a fan on the IC, and other such temperature control measures.
A sensor may monitor the external conditions of a circuit, for example an integrated circuit and in some cases condition management may be carried out. For example, if a circuit becomes too hot, cooling systems such as a fans or liquid cooling may be activated in order to reduce a chip temperature or may be deactivated to save power if the chip temperature is low enough.
Sensors may be provided as analog components which measure and produce an analog signal indicative of the change in conditions. The analog signal may be converted into a digital signal for processing by on-chip circuitry. As on-chip area may be limited, there is often a trade-off between sensor sensitivity or accuracy and size.